Category: Bread Loaf

Okay, so Tuesday turned out to be my BL day from hell. Not any fault of the conference, mind you, but a fault of personal scheduling, and the inescapable syndrome of FMS: Fear of Missing Something. I had workshop comments to finish after breakfast, then workshop, then lunch with my workshop, which I had to…

Day six is actually the day that the entire Bread Loaf campus takes off. Well, more or less. There’s still food to be prepared, rooms to be cleaned, people to be directed. “Off” applies mostly to the readings and workshops, but it really is a welcome chance to take a collective breath and catch up…

The morning lecture was by Josip Novakovich and was titled “Writing in English as a Second Language or The Mot Juste.” The most interesting part of the lecture to me was hearing how he had learned English. In school he had to choose between English and Russian, and the Russian class met in the early…

Day Four’s morning lecture was “Lyric Poetry and the Problem of Time” by David Baker which I had hoped to attend, but I still had workshop comments to complete before we met at 10AM so I skipped. When our workshop met, we continued the excellent work from the prior meeting. The level of work continued…

Day three officially began with Robert Boswell’s lecture “Process and Paradigm.” It was really moving. He framed it by using the story of a young, desperate woman he met while on the road, staying in a hotel. It started humorously and ended very thoughtfully and made me reflect on the morals of co-opting other people’s…

This morning’s lecture by William Kittredge was great. Here are a few of the highlights: He talked about his friend Ray Carver (you may have heard of him) who was a snoop and never failed to “pay attention to the world around him.” “The medium we work in is the reader’s imagination.” He said in…

Day 1 was a blur. My friend Cliff arrived. Lunch was good. Social staff worked and worked and worked and worked. What did we do? Honestly, I can’t remember exactly, but I have vague memories of smiling, lifting, carrying, cleaning, organizing, smiling, giving directions, pouring drinks, answering questions, smiling, cutting cheese, building a fire, etc.…

I’m posting early today because the schedule for today is packed. Last night was our last relaxing evening. A few of us congregated in a nearby building with a great view from the roof and drank wine and talked about life. Today there’s driver training to get licensed by the college–I’m hoping they’ll just renew…

I say “minus two” because the real conference doesn’t start until Wednesday and today is only Monday. Today we pow-wowed with the new members of social staff and practiced mixing drinks…a wet/dry run if you will. There were plenty of willing volunteers. Before that we had an “informative” class on the Vermont liquor laws, which…

It’s so wonderful to be here again! The row of bright sunflowers along the stone wall look especially cheery today. The staff arrived yesterday, trickling in. It’s really a special feeling to be here when it’s quiet (the conference doesn’t start until Wednesday). It’s a different place when there are so few of us on…